1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for measuring a particulate material and more particularly to systems and methods for measuring toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the electrophotographic printing process, an electrically charged rotating photoconductive drum is selectively exposed to a laser beam. The areas of the photoconductive drum exposed to the laser beam are discharged creating an electrostatic latent image of a page to be printed on the photoconductive drum. Toner particles are then electrostatically picked up by the latent image on the photoconductive drum creating a toned image on the drum. The toned image is transferred to the print media (e.g., paper) either directly by the photoconductive drum or indirectly by an intermediate transfer member. The toner is then fused to the media using heat and pressure to complete the print.
The image forming device's toner supply is typically stored in one or more replaceable units installed in the image forming device. As these replaceable units run out of toner, the units must be replaced or refilled in order to continue printing. As a result, it is desired to measure the amount of toner remaining in these units in order to warn the user that one of the replaceable units is near an empty state or to prevent printing after one of the units is empty in order to prevent damage to the image forming device. Accordingly, a system for measuring the amount of toner remaining in a replaceable unit of an image forming device is desired.